Wonderful Operation

Mrs. L. L. Surratt, wife of U. Surratt, of near Gaffney, S. C., returned to Cliffside a few days ago from the Rutherfordton Hospital, entirely recovered from an operation for gall bladder trouble for which she had suffered for about 22 years. She had been taking treatment—proprietary and otherwise—for indigestion and various other stomach and liver troubles, during the greater part of these many years. Her long period of suffering had driven her to many different remedies without avail, and her supposedly diseased stomach had become a veritable drug shop, so to speak. Finally growing steadily worse, she came under the care of Dr. Baxter M. Haynes at Cliffside, one of Rutherford County’s most prominent and successful physicians. After a preliminary treatment, he informed her of the nature of her condition and that it would be necessary for her to undergo an operation before she could obtain any relief. To this she readily consented and was accompanied by the doctor himself to the Rutherford Hospital, where she was operated upon by Dr. Biggs, and 1,324 stones, from the size of a shot to the size of a small bird-egg, were removed from her gall bladder, and she made a speedy recovery. She is 65 years of age, mother of eleven children, and almost as spry as a young girl since her unprecedented recovery, and claims she has not felt a pain since her operation—something she has not been able to boast of for more than twenty years. Her case is indeed an interesting one, and little short of remarkable in many respects—especially in point of her age, duration and severity of the disease and number of stones removed, and is unparalleled in medical literature.
FOLLOWUP: This obituary appeared in the Dec. 4th, 1924 Spartanburg Herald. Her name, age and vicinity suggests this is the same women who endured the remarkable operation. Thanks to Nancie O’Sullivan for calling attention to this obit.
Gaffney, Dec. 4. – Mrs. Lettie Lucretia Sarratt, widow of Eugene Sarratt of the Grassy Pond section of Cherokee Co., died Tuesday at Cliffside, N.C., at the home of her daughter, Mrs. C. P. Moore. She was 79 years of age and had been in declining health for several months. Funeral services were conducted today at Camp’s Creek Bapt. church by the Rev. Charles Stephens.
Mrs. Sarratt is survived by two sons, two daughters, 50 grandchildren and 43 great grandchildren. Her sons are S. A. and N. L. Sarratt. Her daughters are Mrs. W.C. Vinesett and Mrs. Moore. All live in Cherokee Co. except Mrs. Moore who resides in Rutherford Co.